It’s often tempting to throw out paper receipts. With the amount of shopping and dining we do, it’s pretty easy to feel inundated by the reminder of purchases past, especially around the holiday season. But this story is a solid reminder of why we should always keep a good record of what we pay. Unfortunately, scams and shady situations are all around us — even at Texas Roadhouse.
In this particular story, which started unraveling back in 2016, a gentleman insisted that he was ripped off at Texas Roadhouse during three different occasions. Doug Woodward from Colorado Springs was initially dining with his wife when he realized he was overcharged.
He chalked it up to a simple mistake.
Sometimes, even the most dedicated employee can goof up a number during busy dining hours.
And then it happened a second time.
Woodward and his wife returned to the Texas Roadhouse in question a short while after the first overcharge occurred. For a second time, Wooward realized that his receipt did not match up with the charge on his credit card.
They discovered what was happening.
According to Fox21, the manager revealed that the server had botched his tip amount, which rightfully caused Woodward to avoid the popular chain for a year.
It’s upsetting to put faith into restaurant employees.
And then feel ripped off if they add digits to the tip line.
Some media outlets said it was due to his veteran status.
Sites like America Now originally titled their pieces “Waitress Commits Tip Fraud, Steals From Veteran.” Naturally, this riled people up even more.
Of course folks were on Woodward’s side.
Nobody wants to get scammed by their server, and this type of scamming feels extra intrusive. It makes you wonder what else servers can do with your credit card in the five minutes they have them to cover your order.
But, that’s not where the story ends. In fact, it gets a lot stranger.
After dining elsewhere for a bit, Woodward chose to give Texas Roadhouse one last shot.
A year after the last visit, Woodward revisited the Texas Roadhouse.
The same Texas Roadhouse, to be exact. This type of credit card scam can’t happen three times over the span of a year or two, right?
He and his wife went out to eat with another couple, who they treated.
The total bill came to $105.01, and Woodward and his wife tipped $10, bringing the final bill to $115.01.
Once again, he found that he had been overcharged.
Obviously, Woodward was angry. Who wouldn’t be after a restaurant continuously ripped them off? This is when Woodward started getting the media involved, and the pressure was on Texas Roadhouse.
Something seems off.
“I think the odds of being struck by lightning are probably better than this happening to the same person three times at Texas Roadhouse,” Woodward said.
We agree.
How the heck could this happen three different times at the exact same Texas Roadhouse? At this point, we are on Woodward’s side and believe that a server at the restaurant is forging their own tips. Not okay.
Now, while the amount is up to Woodward in the end, a $10 tip on a bill that size is on the lower side.
These days, it’s customary to tip anywhere between 15-20% on a bill at a minimum. This means for a bill of around $105, a standard tip would hover around $15.75 to $21.
If service was exceptional, or if it was on a holiday, that’d often be more.
But Woodward knew what he tipped, and actually kept the customer receipt to prove it.
So, imagine his surprise after seeing that a total of $123.01 was rung up for that night.
“Clearly there was a small zero added to the zero here and a straight line drawn through the 5 to try to make that appear to be an 8.”
“For her to show us the actual receipt that had been changed, that’s the smoking gun. You can’t deny that it was changed.”
Woodward even added that he told his waitress he was a veteran.
Speaking to Fox21, Woodward said that, “For us to do this [go out] was huge, and for her [the waitress] to take advantage of us like that and we even told her that we were vets.”
“We asked about the military discount and so she knew we were vets.”
On Twitter, people were divided. Some were obviously against the theft:
when I was younger I was a waiter. Got plenty of garbage tips but never did I this
— Terry Terrones (@terryterrones) September 21, 2016
Others couldn’t help but point out the lousy tip amount:
Nobody's excusing stealing, but we also shouldn't excuse garbage tips. Two wrongs. @FOX21News @Taylor_FOX21
— Andrew Dwyer (@MoreDwyer) September 21, 2016
Some just thought it was a mess all around:
shouldn't ever happen but question their initial tip amount that was less than 10 percent.
— Buckeye Mike in H-Town (@MichaelBCline) September 25, 2016
Woodward was extra diligent in keeping his numbers straight since he’s on a strict budget.
But he’s a good reminder that you should always keep an eye on your bank statements and make sure things add up. If an employee adds a dollar to every check, that’s a scam that could virtually go unnoticed by the customer.
But, that employee will see the extra money rack up quickly.
The restaurant fired the accused server.
This seems like it was a good move.
First, Texas Roadhouse said that they fired the employee who had tampered with Woodward’s bill for the third time in a row. “After our investigation, we confirmed that Mr. Woodward’s receipt was tampered with by one of our employees,” started the official statement.
“The employee has been terminated and we are refunding the full amount of his bill to Mr. Woodward.”
But then the restaurant flipped the script.
They said they were the scam victim. Um, what?
They chose to retract that and blame Woodward, saying this was all part of a scam.
“Sadly, we have discovered this was a scam.”
They said this about a week after the fact.
“We have rehired the server, banned this gentleman for life from any Texas Roadhouse and are considering legal action.”
Which… wow.
Does it make more sense to believe that Woodward was scammed three times, or that Woodward was behind the scamming in the first place? The only thing you can bet on is the fact that he hasn’t been back for any of their tasty entrees since.
If this is true, why did he guilt trip them?
After the third visit to the Texas Roadhouse, Woodward said that he and his wife were on “a budget like no one’s business,” and that going out “was huge.”
If he did scam the restaurant, he really went above and beyond selling the lie.
And he doubled-down on his statement.
Fox21 reached back out to Woodward after the restaurant chain claimed he was the one doing the scamming. Woodward doubled-down on his accusations, saying he was “eager to confront” the general manager at Texas Roadhouse.
Woodward claimed there was no way someone could have forged the bill at the table.
“There was four adults sitting at the table that night, all of which will testify the merchant copy was handed to the waitress as we were standing up to leave and in no way had been altered by any of us,” Woodward told the Fox media outlet.
He also suggested the waitress pulled the scam on multiple people.
“There’s no way on Earth I was the only victim,” he told Fox21. “I think a lot of people need to check their receipts and I think there’s going to be a lot of angry people.”
He then went into detail about the scam the server allegedly pulled:
“The only way this $8 would benefit anyone is if they were doing it multiple times a night, multiple nights a week. If the waitress would have asked me for the $8, I would have given it to her.” This sounds pretty thought out on his end.
Hmmm, yes, scamming someone multiple times a week could rack up some extra cash…
…or extra meals.
“The management at Texas Roadhouse should be ashamed of themselves.”
“The smoking gun is they presented the altered receipt, not us. What has Texas Roadhouse altered now?” Woodward challenged in a final statement to Fox21.
It all just feels so strange.
Why commit the crime you are accusing someone else of doing? The restaurant seemed to do the right thing when they initially heard Woodward’s complaints, but three times is definitely too many times to be coincidence.
The restaurant even said they were considering legal action.
It makes sense, honestly.
Think about it: if an individual was making your business out to be a scam — and it turned out they were the one scamming the whole time — wouldn’t you want to set the record straight in the public eye?
The restaurant also stressed that they support veterans.
In a statement to Fox21, the restaurant said “To suggest that Meghan [the waitress] or Texas Roadhouse would knowingly attempt to scam a veteran is unconscionable, especially given our company’s support of veterans and active military.”
People were generally confused as to why Woodward would do this.
In a Facebook thread linking to the story, many folks condemned Woodward for his scamming behavior, saying things like, “cheap and a scammer, i f you can’t afford the place don’t go, it’s that simple.”
They felt really bad for the waitress.
“Poor waitress, I can’t image how she felt,” said one commenter. “I’m so glad they figured this jerk out.”
They thought he deserved to get ripped off.
“Anyone who tips only $10 on a $100 bill should get ripped off,” said one commenter.
“I go there all the time.”
“And these are hard working guys and gals and deserve more than 10%. They always give great service and food.”
Some even wanted Woodward put behind bars.
“I hope they throw his butt in jail,” said another commenter. “Not only for his scam, but also his pathetic tipping, especially on a large bill which that server probably had to work hard for.”
“Shame, shame, shame!”
They also chided Fox News for humiliating an innocent waitress.
One angry commenter said, “How about you interview the waitress that lost her job and was shamed and slandered and give her two prime time news spots like you did with the lying scammer?”
Another said they should do their homework.
“How about Fox 21 News being so quick to publicly report this (BS scammer) and then publicly smearing and slandering this restaurant and then publicly slandering and humiliating the server.”
“Shame on you media!”
“Check your facts and do your diligence FIRST!” the commenter finished.
Some wondered if he lied about anything else.
“So the question is… was he lying about being a vet, too?” asked one commenter. We really hope not, but at this point, can he really be trusted?
If Woodward was the mastermind around the check scam, hopefully he’s changed his way since.
There haven’t been any updates on the story.
We don’t know if Texas Roadhouse ultimately sued Woodward, if Woodward was telling the truth, or what the heck was going on. Honestly, if the server wasn’t innocent, we would have surely heard a followup story on this petty criminal. But we didn’t.
Fox21 offered to speak to the waitress.
According to the comments section of the story, the news outlet did “offer to the Texas Roadhouse PR people that if the waitress wants to talk we are more than happy to do an update with her.”
“We haven’t heard back.”
The waitress was probably just glad to be back at her job and out of the spotlight.
This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be careful.
But since untrustworthy servers are out there, you may want to take matters into your own hands by keeping each and every receipt as proof of your transactions, if they’re through credit.
Or, just pay in cash.
It may be less convenient, but it’ll bring about a lot less worry.
